Father dies of sepsis after believe it was the flu

Father-of-three Paul Mitton began feeling ill with a high temperature and aching limbs believing that he was coming down with a simple case of the flu 

A widow has told of how her husband died of sepsis just hours after she gave him a Beechams because they thought he had the flu. 

Father-of-three Paul Mitton began feeling ill with a high temperature and aching limbs.

His brave wife, Joanne, of Preston, Lancashire, said she returned from work to find Mr Mitton with ‘mottled skin and his legs and arms had turned blue’.

Mrs Mitton, mother to their children Abigail, 12, Bobby, 11 and Joshua, five,  told the Lancashire Evening Post: ‘He started getting poorly on the Thursday.  

‘When I woke up on the Friday morning he’d left the house and had gone to work so I assumed he was better and I thought nothing of it.’

Devastated Mrs Mitton said her husband was already in bed by the time she returned home from work that evening.

She gave him painkillers and tended to him throughout the night – believe her husband was suffering from nothing more than the common flu. 

Breaking down into tears, she added: ‘At eight in the morning on Saturday I went to see him and he was stone cold. He had mottled skin and his legs and arms had turned purple.’

An ambulance was called and paramedics inserted a cannula and placed an oxygen mask over Mr Mitton’s face.

Mrs Mitton waited for around half an hour in the A&E waiting room before decided to go see her husband. 

‘All his limbs were black – it was like a very deep purple. His neck and ears were also purple and his lips were turning grey.’

Mr Mitton was placed into an induced coma due to the severe pain.

‘I went down to get a glass of water and when I came back my mother-in-law shouted at me that he was in cardiac arrest,’ said Mrs Mitton. 

‘They tried to resuscitate him. In the space of just hours, he’d left us.’ 

Despite her heartache, Mrs Mitton is hoping to use Paul’s tragedy to raise awareness about sepsis – which kills around 37,000 Brits every year.

She added: ‘There’s not the awareness out there about sepsis.

‘It kills more people than breast and testicular cancer does together. He was lovely, he did everything for his kids.

‘He was a very family-orientated man. Everybody loved him.’ 

Sepsis occurs after an infection as the body attacks its organs.

What are the key symptoms of sepsis? The ‘silent killer’ that can cause death in minutes 

Sepsis, known as the ‘silent killer’, strikes when an infection such as blood poisoning sparks a violent immune response in which the body attacks its own organs.

It is the leading cause of avoidable death, killing at least 44,000 a year.

If caught early, the infection can be controlled by antibiotics before the body goes into overdrive – ultimately leading to death within a matter of minutes.

But the early symptoms of sepsis can be easily confused with more mild conditions, meaning it can be difficult to diagnose.

A patient can rapidly deteriorate if sepsis is missed early on, so quick diagnosis and treatment is vital – yet this rarely happens. 

In the early stages, sepsis can be mistaken for a chest infection, flu or upset stomach. 

The six signs of something potentially deadly can be identified by the acronym ‘SEPSIS’:

  • Slurred speech or confusion.
  • Extreme shivering or muscle pain.
  • Passing no urine in a day.
  • Severe breathlessness.
  • ‘I feel like I might die.’
  • Skin that’s mottled or discoloured.

Anyone who develops any of these symptoms should seek medical help urgently — and ask doctors: ‘Could this be sepsis?’



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